Hi Merlin
Quote:
Originally Posted by Merlin
You could also try looking up the Godwits ?
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In my guidebook, the Black Tailed Godwit illustration is partly overlaid with the summer plumage but the back is depicted in a muddy greenish brown. To confuse things the text insists "
Winter: Grey; long straight bill; black tail" but the grey could be referring to the cheeks neck and breast areas where the summer chesnut colour is replaced by pale grey.
Black tail certainly matches whatever I saw but its back and wings were a biscuity colour. Leucistic BTG is a bit of a long shot though and I would definately need a photo to make that ID stick.
Bar-Tailed Godwit is depicted with an upward curve to the bill which does not match my sighting and I'd have easily noted that stripey tail if it had been like that.
@Ruth
maybe scaly was too strong a word but it was a shorthand way to indicate that each feather had a lighter edge to it.
I haven't revisited this site for a while and my chances of seeing this bird a second time are slim but, in terms of Birdtrack data, recording a species which does not
frequent a site isn't scientifically useful. Not recording something at all, because I couldn't identify it properly is not such a great loss.
cheers
S